Caprese Salad with Red and Green Tomatoes and Kiwifruit

posted by Kalyn Denny on August 15, 2010

Caprese Salad with Red and Green Tomatoes and Kiwifruit is a fun twist on one of the most traditional summer salads, and this tasty meatless salad is also gluten-free and South Beach Diet Phase Two. If you’re a fan of kiwifruit, you’ll love this salad!

Caprese Salad (or Insalata Caprese) is one of those classic Italian summer dishes that I never get tired of eating when I have vine-ripened tomatoes from the garden and fresh mozzarella cheese in the fridge. I’m perfectly happy with a Caprese Salad with just the classic combination of red tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and some good olive oil, but it’s also fun to experiment with other ideas.

I loved this Caprese Salad variation that paired red and green tomatoes with some perfectly ripe Kiwifruit, a light drizzle of white balsamic vinaigrette, and lots of fresh basil chiffonade. I ate about half of this for lunch on the day I took these photos, and then about an hour later I ate the rest for a snack, but this would also make a beautiful first course for a dinner party.

Of course, you don’t really need a recipe to come up with variations of Caprese Salad, but I think it’s fun to get ideas from what other good cooks have done, so look below for more creative Caprese Salad ideas you might like to try next time you have some vine-ripened tomatoes.

You can use any color or variety of tomatoes, but to make a plate of Caprese Salad stacks like I did, you’ll need 8 tomato slices, close to the same size. I used red Celebrity tomatoes and Green Zebra Tomatoes from my garden. You also need 8 Kiwifruit slices, about 1/2 inch thick. (This was 2 kiwifruit.) If you can find the pre-sliced fresh mozzarella like I used, that will make the salad prep even easier. Make stacks with a slice of tomato, a slice of fresh mozzarella, and a slice of kiwifruit, and arrange on a serving dish.

Whisk together olive oil and white balsamic vinegar (or use any light-colored vinegar that has a good flavor. I think Sherry vinegar would be a good substitute.) Slice up a generous amount of fresh basil leaves to make basil chiffonade. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the stacks of tomato, mozzarella, and kiwifruit, season with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste, and sprinkle the basil over. Buon appetito!

1 T good-quality white balsamic vinegar or sherry vinegar (or use any light colored vinegar with a good flavor)

salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste (I used sea salt)

Directions:

Peel the kiwifruit, then slice the tomatoes, kiwifruit, and fresh mozzarella so you have 8 slices (or an equal number of each, depending on how many servings you want.)

Arrange on serving platter in stacks with a slice of tomato, a slice of fresh mozzarella, and a slice of kiwifruit.

Whisk together the olive oil and vinegar.

Stack basil leaves up on top of each other, then thinly slice the basil to make basil chiffonade.Drizzle vinaigrette over the stacks of tomato, mozzarella, and kiwifruit, then season to taste with salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
The addition of fruit makes this Caprese Salad with Red and Green Tomatoes and Kiwifruit Phase Two for the South Beach Diet, although one kiwifruit only has 10 carbs, so I wouldn’t worry that much about eating it! But tomatoes do have some carbs, so this is probably not suitable for traditional low-carb diets.

Nutritional Information?
If you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into this nutrition analyzer, which will calculate it for you. Or if you’re a member of Yummly, you can use the Yum button on my site to save the recipe and see the nutritional information there.

Donna, not sure what Thai Basil Sauce you are referring to; I can't think of a recipe I have that uses Thai basil sauce. This post about freezing Thai basil was posted on that day, but it's not a sauce recipe. There is a recipe on the site for Basil Vinaigrette if that might be what you're looking for?

Just made this with red tomatoes from the farmer's market and fresh local mozzarella. It was so good!! The kiwi added a really nice touch. And my kids loved it. The proportions on the dressing were just right. thanks!